Monorail Stories Review (PC)

Ahmal is trying to track down a cat that has escaped from her owner’s arms and hid somewhere on the monorail. There are three cars to look in and plenty of people who might have seen it. Currently, the character I am controlling is stopped next to a sleeping nurse, who he knows is overworked because of a long shift. Should he wake her up to see whether she has details on the animal's whereabouts?

Meanwhile, Silvie has been deputized by the very unhelpful staff of the monorail to check tickets, something that’s hard to do given that some passengers are sleeping, while others are directly hostile. Should she try to finish the job or simply give up and think about her potentially failing relationship instead?

Monorail Stories is developed by Stelex Software, with publishing handled by Freedom Games. I played it using Steam on the PC and gamers will also be able to pick it up on the Nintendo Switch. The title offers a pretty classic take on a narrative-driven adventure experience.

The story's main characters are Ahmal and Silvie, who ride a monorail that connects the evocatively named cities of M and L every day. There are three carriages to explore during each trip, with plenty of other commuters moving between the two cities. Each day there’s an incident that asks the two protagonists to move around, talk to people, meet new faces, get more details from people they already know, and affect each other's lives from a distance. Make sure to check out the newspaper, which offers details about the way the two cities interact with each other, painting a picture of a version of the future where central authority is declining and tensions are rising.

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The story starts off with the search for a scarf and also includes an episode about a missing kitten, setting up the idea that this is a low-pressure tale about intersecting lives and the way the monorail can bring people together. But there’s a twist late on that will add tension and might strike players as incongruous with the rest of the experience. I might have liked the game better if it offered more information about the bigger world around the characters but never took the step of putting them in direct danger.

The actual gameplay in Monorail Stories is limited and, at times, frustrating. Silvie and Ahmal will slide up to another character, choose from a limited number of interactions, and maybe make a small decision. The puzzles, if you can call them that, are simple and mostly involve walking around the three cars to see who you can interact with. Movement is slow and it’s a little weird that characters have to stand in a very precise place to interact with one another. It makes the game feel awkward, as does the short pause after an interaction ends.

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Monorail Stories relies on its narrative to keep gamers pushing forward. But I feel that neither Ahmal nor Silvie have interesting enough personalities or stories. And their interactions with the rest of the cast are too short to make the entire world feel interesting, although I like the newspapers and the way the cast reacts to those events. The good thing is that getting to an ending takes a little more than one hour, which means gamers do not need to invest a ton of time to try and see how different choices will lead to other results.

Monorail Stories also features an asynchronous multiplayer mode, allowing two players to take on the role of Silvie and Ahmal and interact while riding the monorail, without actually meeting directly. The relatively short narrative is well suited to such a concept and the title is clearly set up to encourage players to try and get as many endings as possible.

Monorail Stories uses detailed pixel art for its presentation, and it works well with the adventure game core. The two main characters have a clearly defined personality, something that some of the recurring secondary characters lack, despite their varied and colorful designs. The game is fully voiced, and the actors do a good job of infusing the two protagonists with an inner life, although their reactions in the final part of the story feel a little unnatural. I also like the chill soundtrack, although a few extra tunes to add to the variety would have been a good idea.

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The Good

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